SAO - Human Ascension Project
by rhinweddol
Summary: What was the true purpose behind Sword Art Online (I initially posted 2 months ago, but I selected the wrong format, making it harder to read than C . I assure you, it is now in standard English, left to right, top to bottom.) :)
1. Chapter 1

"Kirito." Sachi whispered.

Kirito – real world name of Kazuto – shot up. I looked around. Another dream. I had been getting flashbacks and hauntings of Sachi since that day, but something had been bugging me lately. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something was amiss.

Kazuto's bedroom door jolted open. "Morning!"

"Hey, Suguha." I sighed.

"Nice to see you too. Are you going to be meeting everyone in a few?"

"Huh?" I looked over at my clock. 9:30! I got up fast and got ready.

"Hey, Leafa, you coming too?" I asked referring to Suguha by her ALO name.

"Don't call me that, Kirito." She shot back.

"Welcome back, daddy!" Yui hugged me. She noticed my expression. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Kay."

Truth was I just couldn't shake Sachi from my head today. Her and the entire Moonlit Black Cats Guild died over two years ago. The deep guilt I felt was lifted that Christmas, but her death still weighed heavily on me. This feeling, however, was not of guilt. I had been hearing her the past month as I was disconnecting after logout.

"Hey, space cadet. Wanna join us?" Klein interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah, where are we going?"

"There's a room I heard of that gives a boatload of treasure and armour. Unfortunately, you have to defeat multiple monsters at the same time. Oh, and you can forget about using teleport crystals." Leafa said.

The colour drained from my face as I dropped to my knees.

"Kirito!" Leafa ran over. "What's wrong?"

Asuna rushed to my side and embraced me. "It wasn't your fault."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, Leafa, that sounds like the room where Kirito lost all the members of his first guild, including Sachi." Klein said.

"Wait, Sachi?" Leafa asked and then realized. "Oh, I remember him mentioning her." She looked down. "I'm sorry. Why don't we call it a day?"

"That might be a good idea, Kirito looks pretty shaken up." Agil added.

"Sorry."

"It's okay, Suguha." I looked up. "Why don't you guys go ahead?"

"We go or don't go as a group. And we decided to take it easy as a group." Silica said.

"Alright."

I reached up and logged myself out on the virtual pad.

"Kirito!"

"Yui, hold logout!"

"On it."

The logout cancelled as my group stared at me.

"What happened?" Lizbeth asked.

"She's here!" I exclaimed. "Yui, triangulate that signal."

"On it."

Yui kept telling me she could find the location of the signal if I cancelled logout as I was the only one hearing it. This time it seems I was able to cancel the logout.

"Kay, I can hold you in the buffer longer on logout. Try now."

"What are you doing?" Asuna asked.

"I'll tell you later." I made the logout motions.

The environment dissipated as I heard Sachi's voice once again. "I'm here!"

"Kirito!"

"Where are you?"

"I'm scared."

"Sachi! I'm here. It's going to be okay."

The connection terminated. I pulled the NERV gear off and turned my computer screen on. Yui as a three inch sprite appeared on my screen. "Did you find her?"

"I detected a weak signal, but it was definitely Sachi."

"Thank god."

"There's something else."

"What?"

"She's registering the same signal as Dr Kayaba."

"You mean she's a phantom?"

"No, I don't think so. I think she's really still here."

I logged back in and was met with Dr Kayaba instead of everyone else.

"What is going on?"

"Ascension."

"What?"

"SAO was an experiment in ascension – what happens to the human body after death. I was able to hold their essence."

"Are you saying…"

"Their bodies have died, but they essentially remain online. Their signal needs to be boosted as they cannot manifest themselves…pity."

"How do I get her back?!" I grabbed him by the labcoat.

"Don't worry. She's always been here. Having you back has boosted her signal. Everyone's signal needs to be boosted. I will assist. I did not intend for death after all."

"Regardless, don't expect forgiveness. You still killed them. They can no longer return to the real world."

He sighed. "I suppose. But as I am dead, I can no longer be liable for my crimes – at least not in a court of law."

The world flashed from white as I materialized on the plain.

"What's going on?" Leafa asked.

"Did you get a lock?" Yui aaked.

"Even better…I got hope."

"What do you mean?" Asuna asked.

"Sachi. She's alive…well sorta."

"She's alive? How?" Klein asked.

"Not quite sure, but Yui has been helping me in the past month…and I just had an interesting conversation with Dr Kayaba." I explained everything that I had been told to them.

"We'll help in any way we can." Leafa said.


	2. Chapter 2

A purple haze swirled in the black void. Kirito felt as though he were falling, but there was no wind. This place seemed warm though he could not tell where the heat was coming from. A voice echoed from far away, getting closer. "Kirito!"

Kirito shot up from bed. He had been sleeping since he had the talk with Dr Kayaba. That voice was definitely Sachi…and it was haunting him.

"What's wrong, daddy?" Yui as a computer sprite asked as the computer monitor flashed on.

"I heard her." I was panting.

"But, you weren't connected at all."

"Yui, start and buffer the login." I put on the NERV gear and laid back down.

The surroundings were a bluish grey as the game was being prevented from being turned on completely.

"Sachi! Yui, can you hear me?"

"Yep."

"Do you sense her anywhere?"

"I'm getting lots of noise and static."

"Try to filter for her and feed it back to me."

"Kirito?" Sachi's voice was unmistakable.

"Sachi?" I was moved to tears. "Yui, triangulate her signal and place in the local buffer."

"Her signal is not reading normal."

"Reallocate the graphics processor to boost the signal."

"Um, I'm getting something, but its weak."

"Recalibrate the local buffer to hold compensate for noise. Don't lose her. I'm counting on you."

"Daddy, the system is overheating."

"Are you safe?"

"I'm installed on your computer and saved on your iPad and external hard drives. Can't get rid of me."

"Just a little more." I started smelling smoke. The machine was burning up. Luckily these things didn't have safeties to prevent the system from disconnecting the user.

"Kirito!" Sachi shouted as her image materialized in front of me, though still as a ghost.

"Yui, recalibrate the system, borrow power and processing from the computer and the internet."

Sachi fully materialized.

"I got her. She's saved. I made her a cute chibi sprite for the desktop too."

Sachi would have to resign herself to being only on the computer or online. Her body was long gone. Yui, however, never had a body. Could Sachi cope?

I pulled the system off, but realized something terrible. I could not see. I touched my face. It felt badly sunburnt. The system had overheated alright. Why didn't Yui say something? She probably knew I would keep going regardless. I needed to be treated, but still not lose my NERV gear. There were so many other people to save.

"Kirito? Are you okay?" Sachi asked from my computer.

"Yes. Just hearing your voice again has made everything okay."

"Sachi, just hang out with me offline. Online, you, me and daddy can go have fun."

"Don't worry, Sachi. I will save your friends and tell your parents."

Six months later...

"Daddy, wait up!" Yui rushed towards me, Asuna, and the others, including Sachi.

"Still getting used to your body?" I asked, referring to the android body that Asuna's father's company in partnership with Kazumi Group's Robetex company had devised. Asuna's father had shown me the prototype model for Sachi five months prior. You could almost be fooled into thinking it was a real body. The heat exchange system funneled the heat from the CPU and other gizmos to the skin via wire "veins" similar to the human body. In essence, they felt warm and even had a simulated heatbeat.

"Yeah. I can't fly either."

"Neither can I." I facepalmed as Sachi giggled, nearly knocking my glasses off. I had to start wearing glasses after the incident rescuing Sachi. My burns had healed, but my eyes were fairly bad now. It was a bittersweet moment for me when I won the Nobel Peace Prize for saving all of the victims' essence/souls as I had to share it with their bodies' murderer, Dr Kayaba. Dr Kayaba ensured he would get an android body in exchange for information to bring the others back. Of course, he also demanded diplomatic immunity and protection from any legal action. In exchange, he could no longer access the internet or program games, or leave his home without direct police surveillance.

"Kirito?" Sachi asked as we walked back from the cafe.

"Yeah?"

"I know I said this many times, but thank you." She paused. "My little brother is almost as tall as me now."

"Yeah, sorry. I should have gotten you sooner."

She shook her head. "You did your best. The rest of the world thought of us as dead. Only you and that man knew any different." She scraped "that man" off of her lips, referring to Dr Kayaba. "But, what will become of us?"

"What do you mean?"

"We can't age. I'll see you turn into an old man and eventually die. And so will Yui."

I laughed. "Well, as much as I hate Kayaba he did give the world the formula for inputting one's essence into the system. I'm already backed up. If I were to die today without going back in to the VR world, I would still be myself and be able to get an android body like yours, but I just wouldn't remember this conversation unless I were to save when I get home.

"That's good." Sachi laughed.

"What?"

"Really, you want a body like mine?" She pointed to herself. "You should probably stick to one that looks like you."

"Oh, shut up." I stuck my tongue out at her.


End file.
